Suddenly, like a variation on a theme, to our right someone shouted "Manker!" (Man United fan apparently) and then scuffling broke out as the "Manker" was seized upon and then a full-scale punch up ensued. Jack stood in front with his arms wide apart shielding me from any harm. I kept jumping up to take a look over his shoulder at the fracas. Stewards were there in a jiff, quickly followed by police, the offending "Manker" was removed and put in his own block and it was all over as quickly as it started.

This was a welcome deviation from the game as by this time in the second half Arsenal were playing so badly with a defense so abysmal that they could just as well have cleared a space around the goal and guided the Manchester ball in for them. (This is the first symptom of football mania - you become an expert on things you know nothing about). All the excitement and hope disappeared and the morale of the Arsenal crowd and team just sank like a souffl&#233;.